1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for extracting objects included in an image of image data and giving semantics to the extracted objects in a layout of the image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, there is known an image processing system that scans a paper original to convert the paper original into electronic data, applies area analysis to document image information of the electronic data to extract objects such as character areas, acquires text information of the character areas by performing OCR processing, and performs predetermined processing on the basis of this text information.
The image processing system in the past extracts a semantic (a title, a header, a paragraph of a text, etc.) of a certain character area in a layout and extracts an attribute (e.g., a character string “2006/01/25” is “date”) of a text in text information of the character area (see, for example, JP-A-11-250041).
There is also known a technique for making it possible to correct, using an interface such as a GUI, semantics determined for objects extracted from an image of image data and an attribute determined for a text (see, for example, JP-A-2001-344562).
The image processing system in the past can notify a user of only a single semantic finally determined for an object included in an image. Therefore, the user has to determine, on the basis of only the single semantic finally determined, whether semantic determination processing automatically performed in the image processing system is proper.
When the user desires to correct a result of semantic determination automatically applied to an object included in an image (e.g., when a certain object, a semantic of which is determined, is not appropriate, change the object to an appropriate object), the user also has to determine correction candidates that the user himself or herself considers appropriate. This imposes a burden on operation by the user.